NYAB Event - Jenny Marketou “Flows”

Jenny Marketou “Flows”

Nohra Haime Gallery

This event has ended.

lows was commissioned by the First International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Cartagena de Indias, Colombia in 2014. It is an audiovisual score composed by the unique, powerful lyrics and baring voices of legendary black women singers of Afro Colombian Diaspora. They appear performing different styles, such as Lumbalú, Bullerengue, Son de Negr and Son Palenquero, improvisations crafted from everyday life, signatures of their memories, their rituals, and their expressions of protest against the loss of identity.

Marketou travelled through different areas of Cartagena interviewing the singers, talking to their families, and experiencing their daily life. She filmed the women singing songs that have been passed down from generation to generation, noticing that the music’s rhythm and melody became vehicles for nonverbal communication between men and women. Marketou’s investigations resulted in a musical and visual archive with direct and pure testimonies of the performers. The work also presents the social and political messages that Cumbia carries, reflecting Colombia’s past, present and future.

Jenny Marketou is an interdisciplinary artist who uses nontraditional environments that engage with the spectators, inspiring them to propose new ideas and interpretations. Cities, areas and spaces are of main importance in her work, along with the examination of the relationship with their inhabitants. Her video, Flows, is a reflection of that interest, and a true audiovisual document on Colombian music.